Why Home Buyers Should Arrive In The First Hour Of A Home Inspection

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Waiting until the final minutes of a home inspection sounds convenient, but it’s one of the fastest ways to leave with unanswered questions and unnecessary anxiety. We break down why “just show up for the summary” often backfires: the inspector is finishing notes, packing up equipment, locking up the property, and trying to hand the home back to the seller on time. When you arrive late, you’re asking for a full tour of findings during the exact window when there’s the least time to give it.

We walk through the better strategy for home buyers: arrive during the first hour. That early check-in lets us hear your top concerns, confirm what we’ll focus on, and explain how our inspection sequence works so the process stays efficient and thorough. While we work, you can measure rooms, visualize your move, and get comfortable with the space. When something bigger than the usual small stuff shows up, we’ll wave you over at the right moment and explain what you’re seeing.

We also call out two major red flags in real estate: an inspection company that won’t let you attend, or an agent who tells you to skip the inspection. You’re buying the house and paying for the home inspection, so you deserve access, transparency, and the chance to ask questions. Finally, we share how to be present without distracting the process, plus why seeing issues like basement moisture in person can keep a fix in proper perspective.

If you want practical home inspection tips, buyer guidance, and a clearer inspection day checklist, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s buying a home, and leave a review. What timing have you been told to follow for inspections?

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To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Three-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com) 

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Hey everybody, welcome.
And this is Jim, of course,Laura's here.

SPEAKER_02 (00:05):
Hello, everyone.

SPEAKER_00 (00:06):
Alright, so should buyers.
Should home buyers arrive at thefirst half of the home
inspection time slot?
And because we have some agentswho tell them, hey, go at the
very end, get the summary.
Get the summary, get thewrap-up.
Personally, we think that'sbullshit.

SPEAKER_02 (00:28):
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (00:28):
It has caused more problems than it than it's
worth.
So, first of all, if we areinspecting a house, Laura, we
have we have an amount of timeslot to get that done.
And because the houses mostoften they are occupied.
Right.
The seller wants to get back totheir house for their kids,

(00:50):
their family to have dinner, getready for bed or whatever, what
they got going on.

SPEAKER_02 (00:55):
We've had people that were driving around with
pets and wanting to know when wewere done because they they
didn't want the pets in thehouse.

SPEAKER_00 (01:03):
Yeah, well, yeah, and that to me that is makes
sense.
As a former paper boy, when Iwas a kid, I was a paper boy, I
got bit a couple times fromdogs, definitely threatened many
times by dogs.
So I appreciate having the dogsgone.
If they're gonna be in a cage,that's fine, but make sure it's

(01:24):
not a dog that knows how to getout of said cage.
Yes, and make sure this is theinspector knows hey, there's
there'll be a dog, he will be inthe garage, he's who we'll be in
a kennel.
That's cool.
Don't let him loose in thegarage, and then I can't inspect
the garage.
But anyway, besides that, wethink it's best for the the home
buyer to get there during thefirst hour of the inspection.

(01:47):
Because too many times, let'ssay it is a one to four time
slot.
A person gets there quarter tillfour.

SPEAKER_02 (01:57):
We have fifteen minutes and that's it.
And we have to We have to packup our stuff, we have to lock up
the house, we have to do ourvideo.
That's what the last 15 minutesis for.

SPEAKER_00 (02:08):
Well, and if we're still there.

SPEAKER_02 (02:10):
If we're still there.

SPEAKER_00 (02:12):
So, but say somebody gets in 15 minutes left and they
want to go through alleverything we found, and they
go, Hey, can you show that tome?
Can you show me this?
Can you go show me that now?
Can I you got pictures?
Can you go show me where thatone's at?
Like, dude, we don't know.
You should have been here fromthe beginning.
We do not have the time to showyou all these things and then
give the house back to theseller in the appropriate amount

(02:34):
of time.
So, what we recommend is thehome buyer get there during the
first hour of the inspection.
We introduce ourselves, we askthem what their concerns are,
and that way we can assure them,yes, we will look at that, and
we will make a note, at least amellow note as where what can

(02:54):
concerns they really have.
Sometimes they're concernedabout something that we would
never look at because it's itdoesn't mean anything to us.
I've had that before.
But we can at least addressthose and know exactly what to
focus on.
And then, and here's what I liketo tell them is if I come across
anything larger than the normalsmall stuff, I will wave you

(03:18):
over.
But this is the buyer's time tolook around, measure, visualize
their stuff moving in.
If you're an agent, you wantthem to be able to visualize,
seeing themselves living thereif there's stuff.

SPEAKER_02 (03:32):
That helps everything in the long run.
I mean, the that they start tosee that house is theirs.

SPEAKER_00 (03:38):
Yeah, and and I do tell the buyer, listen, you can
follow me if you want.
You know, you're you're gonnaget bored.
Pretty much everybody gets boredof what I'm doing at some point,
so don't feel bad.
I'll wave you over and seeanything more than the usual
little little things.
But it's good though, if we seesome issue and maybe what we
feel like, all right, thisperson's gonna need this
explained to them, we'll walkthem over and show them.

(04:01):
And it's not like we're tryingto review everything in the last
15 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 (04:06):
No, it's it we take the time to go over things, we
take the time to answerquestions, and I think some of
the inspectors do itdifferently.
Like some do it at the end of asection, some do it as they see
things.
So it depends upon the inspectorand how they do it, but they'll
tell you that in the beginning.
Yeah, and part of their theirtalk.

SPEAKER_00 (04:24):
Yeah, and usually what I do, I just if it's just a
minor normal stuff, I don'tmention it to them except when I
come across them because they'remeasuring, and I'm coming across
my hey, just another electricalpanel that looked good.
I'm now doing the outlesswindows doors as I go around the
interior person of the house.
I'll let them know what's goingon, and if I found anything
unused or not, or tell them,hey, I think it looks good, or

(04:44):
found found um a little bit ofmoisture in the half bathroom
toilet, just needs a wax ring.
That's it.
I keep moving.
Yep.

SPEAKER_01 (04:55):
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for a home inspection in Ohio.
Trusted licensed home inspectorsfor your needs.
From radon to mold to warranty.
For a great home inspection, youreally can't go wrong.

(05:16):
Visit home inspections inOhio.com.

SPEAKER_00 (05:21):
But another issue with people waiting until the
last you know half hour, 15minutes to get to the house
inspection is the spectrum mightbe gone.

SPEAKER_02 (05:29):
That is a very valid concern.

SPEAKER_00 (05:32):
We give ourselves typically three-hour time slot
because we do other things aswell.
We might be doing termite check,uh, termite inspection, radon.
Racing radon, radon, which takesa good amount of time to set
that up.
We could be doing gas leak, moldtesting.
Who knows what we're all addedwas added onto that inspection.
And I had a house the other day,actually yesterday, it was it

(05:56):
was a final walkthroughinspection.

SPEAKER_02 (05:58):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (05:59):
So a new house just finished up.
There were not that many thingsgoing on.
There were some things thatneeded that really needed to be
addressed, certainly.
But I was alone the whole time,and there are fewer issues,
which really helped speed up thethe inspection.
If that buyer, who apparentlynet wasn't showing up anyway, if

(06:21):
they had what am I gonna do?
I'm am I gonna wait around anhour waiting for a person to
show up to explain something tothem?
And then and there's a good Theymay not even show up.
Yeah, there's a there's a lot ofpercentage where they yeah, they
there's a lot of percentage ofthe people who say, Yeah, well,
I'm gonna show up, and then theyend up never showing up.

SPEAKER_02 (06:38):
Or or life happens and they just forget about it
and they don't show up.

SPEAKER_00 (06:42):
Which always kind of confuse me.
You're buying a house.
How do you just forget to notwant to show up?
How do you just forget thatyou're buying a house and the
price is going on?

SPEAKER_02 (06:50):
And that's another thing, too.
If you have an inspectioncompany that says you cannot be
there during the inspection, geta new inspection company.
That's a big red flag.
Buying this house, it is goingto be the largest purchase of
your life, and you want to beable to be there.
You want to ask questions, youwant an inspection company that
is going to support you and helpyou and answer your questions,

(07:12):
not one who's trying to hidestuff and not letting you be
there.

SPEAKER_00 (07:15):
And I would consider that a red flag also if your
agent tells you as a home buyerdo not go to the home
inspection.
Yes, I would too.

SPEAKER_02 (07:22):
We've had that before, and then we and those
are the ones that we've gone inand we've done second
inspections for the clientbecause they didn't trust the
first one because the agentpicked out the inspector and
they weren't allowed to go toit.

SPEAKER_00 (07:36):
Yeah, you you are if you're the home buyer, you are
buying this house.
You have every right to be thereduring that inspection.

SPEAKER_02 (07:42):
And you're paying for the inspection.

SPEAKER_00 (07:44):
Yeah, so don't let anybody tell you you cannot go
to that go to the homeinspection.
That is that is not right.
I don't know why some agentswill do that.
I there's stick up for yourself.
Yeah, yeah, there's all kinds ofdifferent theories as to why
some people would tell you notto go to the inspection.
I mean, maybe I if maybe somepeople would be very uh I got I

(08:09):
don't want to say annoying, butthey would be uh constantly
asking the inspector questions,getting them distracted.
That that can be a legit problembecause we only have a certain
amount of time to get everythingdone.
And I've had some buyers ontheir I did the outside, I'm in
the basement of the electrical,they go, hey, did you see this
over here?
It's like I haven't gottenthere.

(08:30):
I have not done that.
That's not part of the sequenceyet.
But they they constantly areasking you a question about
something else.
Hey, did you see did you lookunderneath the attic yet?
No, it's not part of thesequence yet.
So you you gotta, as a homeinspector, you gotta keep
control of the sequence of whatyou're doing because you have a
limited amount of time.

SPEAKER_02 (08:48):
And you have the liability, so you need to to
control the situation andcontrol when you're doing
things.

SPEAKER_00 (08:55):
Yes.
So you you need to now if you'rea home buyer or are you an
agent, have your home buyer gothere, go tell them to go, hey,
stay out of the inspector's way,let them know what you're
concerned about, spend your timethere measuring things.
Buyer doesn't have to be therethe whole time, they don't have

(09:16):
to show up at all.
We prefer them to be there alittle bit because at least I
can show them You know what'sgoing on.
Like say it's a finishedbasement, I I find moisture.
If they just read in the in thereport that's hey, I found
moisture in the basement, theymay think it's the entire
basement has flooded and may doit again.
I'd rather have them there andgo, hey, I found moisture in

(09:36):
this corner right here in thebasement.
It also has to be on theoutside, there's a downspout
that's not connected.
That yes, it's a concern, butreally minimize and and show how
practically um insignificant afix for that would would be.
You don't want them you don'twant the buyer imagining, oh,

(09:57):
the whole thing is flooding andthere's moisture all over the
walls.
You don't want them to thinkthat.
So it's that's why you want themthere so we can at least put the
and there and they visually canput it in a proper perspective
as to how much moisture or howmuch the wall is cracked, things
like that.
But the buyers should leave theinspector alone for the most

(10:19):
part, let them do theirsequence, and every inspector
should have a sequence.
If not, they need to create onefor themselves.
So Laura, any other thoughtsabout this one?

SPEAKER_02 (10:32):
No.

SPEAKER_00 (10:32):
This is not this is not a real big episode, but it's
real important that you, ifyou're the buyer, if you can
show up, please do so.
Don't show up at the end, showup in the beginning.
I don't care what your agenttells you.

SPEAKER_02 (10:44):
They're not doing the inspection.

SPEAKER_00 (10:45):
We are you can be there in the very beginning if
you want.
I'm fine.
Just realize that the inspectorhas a sequence, and that
sequence is to your benefit toallow them to do their sequence
and do the proper inspection foryou so they can do a thorough
job.
Do not distract them.
Ask them when's a good time toask them questions.
That's cool.
I have no problem with that.

SPEAKER_02 (11:06):
Set that up in the beginning.
Like, when when do you want meto ask questions?

SPEAKER_00 (11:10):
Yeah, that yeah, that's perfect.
So, other than that, I thinkthat's it for this one, but
always get the home inspector.
That's you do that.
All right, thank you, everybody.
Bye, bye bye.